Venus, the planet representing beauty, self-esteem, money,
material possessions, love, and relationships has been in retrograde in Gemini
since May 15th and will continue to do so until June 27th. Planets in
retrograde always bring opportunities to re-examine and revamp a way of thinking
or doing something that may keep us from living life at the height of being. In
other words, it’s probably broke and we need to fix it.

Okay, so what is “it”? That “It” will be anything having to
do with Venus-ruled areas as mentioned above. As Venus is the natural ruler of
Libra and Taurus (the two signs most concerned with one-on-one relationships
and material wealth), over the next few weeks the question of the moment for many of us will
be “what’s it worth?” Has a key relationship (romantic or
not) turned out to be more than we bargained for? Is there a relationship in
our lives worth saving? What about our relationship with ourselves? Do we think
we’re really good enough? (I mean, really, really?) And what about our relationship to our bank
accounts? Does it match the lifestyle we want to lead? If not, can it? With Venus currently in
Gemini, the sign of communication, our responsibility is to ensure that we are
having the right conversations with ourselves and those in our network to get the
answers to these questions; then, in typical Geminian fashion, applying what we
have learned.

In my own life, I’ve already been feeling the effects of
this retrograde by being forced (I’ve been ignoring the proverbial knock at the
door for quite some time now) to majorly restructure my spending habits
(starting with my high-ass monthly cell phone bill) and to rethink my
relationship to money. In addition, with Venus currently transiting my 10th
house of career and public image, part of my concern around finances has to do
with whether or not I warrant opportunities that will sufficiently pay me for
not only my talents (am I good enough?) but also for doing the (creative) things that make me
happy (do I deserve it?).

In the coming weeks, the universe will be providing us all with the time needed to catch up on our homework. I have an idea about what my lesson is, what's yours?